The United States of America (also known as the United States, the U.S., the USA, the States, and America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising 50 states and a federal district. Its capital is Washington in that federal district.

The nation was founded by 13 colonies of Britain located along the Atlantic seaboard of North America. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed their independence from Great Britain and their formation of a cooperative union. The rebellious states defeated Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war of independence. A federal convention adopted the current United States Constitution on September 17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic with a strong central government. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many fundamental civil rights and freedoms, was ratified in 1791.

In the 19th century, the United States acquired land from France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the agrarian South and industrial North over states' rights and the expansion of the institution of slavery provoked the American Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. By the 1870s, the national economy was the world's largest. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military power. In 1945, the United States emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and a founding member of NATO. The end of the Cold War left the United States as the sole superpower.

The company was aware of several alternates with differing versions of the US. There were several where the Confederate States had won the American Civil War and others where the United States had been conquered by the Axis.[2] There was at least one where the United States had become a dictatorship and went on to dominate the world.[3] In another alternate, the United States never existed as the American Revolution did not take place.

In an alternate where nuclear weapons had never been developed, the United States and the Soviet Union fought World War VI in the 2090s. Footage taken in this alternate was shown to high school students in their US history classes.[4] Conversely, there were several alternates where an atomic war took place in the 20th Century. Explorers from the home timeline found that in some of these alternates the USSR had started the war whereas in others, the US had fired the first shots.[5] Some of these were in the process of getting back on their feet. Others were completely devoid of human life.

In the alternate designated as 3477 by Crosstime Traffic, the United States remained neutral during the war of 1914, and watched helplessly as Germany subdued Europe, solidifying its rule by the late 1930s. In 1956, Germany attacked and defeated the United States, dropping atomic bombs on a dozen cities on the first day of its war. The United States remained under German rule over 140 years later.

The United States was the name of a nation which existed for about 30 years in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The nation's doom was sealed in 1787, when a conflict at the Constitutional Convention over the nature of representation could not be resolved or compromised. A new Constitution was never adopted, so the weak Articles of Confederation were allowed to stand, the central government never managed to control the states, and eventually all of the states became independent countries.

In one alternateCrosstime Traffic visited, United States was unequal to the task of confronting the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The most important event that broke the Soviet Union's way included the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the U.S. allowed the Soviet Union to maintain missiles in Cuba. This decision signaled to the world that the United States was not as ardent about fighting the Cold War as it claimed. In 1968, the U.S. withdrew troops from the Vietnam War. In response, Europeancommunists and socialists established popular fronts, which gradually pushed European governments away from the US and towards the Soviet Union. By the 1970s, most of Europe was under communist rule.

The United States held out on its own until the end of the 20th century, when it too fell to communist rule. By the late 21st century, the United States was seen as harmless, and was completely obedient to the USSR.[6]

Americans were usually portrayed as villains in the popular culture of the world, often acting as spies who sought to bring back capitalism or Nazism or both.[7]

Following its devastating nuclear war with the Soviet Union in 1967, the territory of the United States was split up into countless mini-states and chaotic lawless areas. Just in the former city of Los Angeles there were several such states, jealous of their full sovereignty and occasionally going to war with each other. In most ways, people felt loyalty to their own state and regarded the inhabitants of other states carved from former US territory as "foreigners" and often as outright enemies. Still, many of these states continued celebrating the Fourth of July, expressing a vestigial feeling of being "Americans" and a remaining hostility towards the Russians, though most people had no real idea of where Russia was or what "communism" was. There was also a hope that sooner or later the whole territory of the United States would be reunited, though nobody could guess when and how that would be effected. People in The Valley expressed the hope that one day a descendant of King Zev might achieve this task, but they had no real concept of how big the United States had been, having only a vague idea even about distant parts of what had been the State of California.

The United States had sought to remain neutral in the conflict that was quickly evolving into World War II. That ended in 1941, when, in response to Japan's aggression in China, the United States stopped selling oil and steel to Japan. Japan saw this as an act of aggression, as without these resources Japan's military machine would grind to a halt. In March, 1941, the Japanese government resolved to go to war with the United States. The first blow would be an attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, on the U.S. territory of Hawaii. However, at the insistence of Commander Minoru Genda and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, that plan became an invasion of Hawaii.

The invasion began on December 7, 1941. U.S. forces, believing such an attack impossible while also presuming their inherent superiority, were surprised by the efficiency and skill Japanese forces demonstrated. The Japanese quickly gained dominance of the air and the sea, and U.S. ground forces were overwhelmed by the tenacity of the Japanese army. By February, 1942, U.S. forces surrendered.

For the remainder of 1942, U.S. policy was directed to regaining Hawaii, while also at war with Japan's ally, Germany. President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to pursue a "Germany first" policy in the war, but the loss of Hawaii, followed by Japan's air raid on San Francisco, forced the U.S. to focus its attention on the Pacific.

The first response from the U.S. came in March 1942, when Jimmy Doolittle led an air-raid on Oahu. In retaliation, Japanese bombers raided San Francisco, an act that further humiliated the U.S.

In the wake of the failed invasion, the U.S. concentrated on a realistic plan for invading Hawaii, assembling an overwhelming force. In 1943, the United States returned, with a massive fleet, comprised of some seven aircraft carriers, five light carriers, close to a dozen escort carriers, several destroyers, and troop carriers. This invasion proved to be the end of Japanese rule in Hawaii, as the Japanese naval contingent was destroyed, and the Japanese supply line, already taxed, was broken completely. American forces landed at Oahu, and after a period of bitter fighting, were able to subdue Japan's ground forces.

The United States turned its attention to Midway, which was still under Japanese control.

The United States was in the throes of a generational crisis as Boomers retained the reigns of government in the face of Generation Xers and Wires. The Twenty-Eighth Amendment to the Constitution had been passed, which called for a balanced budget and restrained entitlement programs.

When Quebec invaded the Maritimes, the Maritimes called on the US to arbitrate a cease-fire and send peace-keepers. In a cabinet meeting, the president reazlied that the Twenty-Eighth Amendment limited her use of peace-keepers. She was also confronted by the generational anxiety of her younger cabinet members. The situation was made more difficult by the possibility that Quebec might next turn its attention to Maine if it wasn't stopped in the Maritimes.

Early in the 21st century China refused to continue to lend to the United States causing a severe economic downturn. The debts resulted in the U.S. ceding Catalina Island and the rest of the California Channel Islands to China. The U.S. reacted poorly causing its problems to escalate so that by 2117 it was considered by the world an "economic basket case".

During this period, the U.S. government and its citizens refused to recognize their changed status and continued to act as though it were the premier superpower leading to further declines. China used this to its advantage and gained the U.S.'s former status. The U.S. also reacted militarily but had lost ground technologically as well so that its attacks were defeated. The resulting indemnities required the United States to lease Long Beach and San Pedro to the Chinese while Los Angles was temporally put under military occupation by the Chinese. These actions insured that the U.S. would continue its decline.

In 1864, the Confederacy's chances of victory were diminishing in the face several critical military defeats and the vast difference in industrial and human resources that favored the U.S. However, through the actions of a group of time-traveling members of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, a racist South African organization, the South was saved. The Rivington Men (as they came to be called) supplied Robert E. Lee'sArmy of Northern Virginia with AK-47 automatic rifles. These futuristic weapons more than made up for the Confederacy's lack of resources.

After several weeks of training, the Army of Northern Virginia engaged the Federal military at the Wilderness and then Bealeton, Virginia. The Federals were completely surprised by the new "repeaters", and quickly collapsed. In a news paper article of the time in the short battles in the Wilderness the federals suffered 40,000 losses. The ANV pressed on to Washington City, where President Abraham Lincoln had remained despite the encroaching enemy. When Lee and his army arrived, Lincoln invited the rebel commander into the White House to negotiate an armistice, ending major combat of the Second American Revolution.

The United States licked its wounds. Lincoln was voted out of office, although he was able to secure reasonably good terms for peace. One conflict was the status of Kentucky and Missouri, two slave-states. Under a compromise, both were allowed to decide which country they would join in a plebiscite. Missouri remained part of the United States, while Kentucky joined the Confederate States.

The United States was able reverse engineer AK-47s captured from Confederate troops. These guns were put into mass production. Although not quite as reliable as the Confederate models, the guns were nonetheless successful. By 1867, the United States had launched a war with Britain and an invasion of Canada.

Truman flew to Honolulu on December 18, 1950 to meet with General Douglas MacArthur, the overall commander in the Pacific. While MacArthur didn't quite admit he'd been wrong when he assured Truman that the Chinese would not intervene, he did acknowledge that they were attacking and would continue to mass along the Yalu River until China itself was attacked. When Truman pointed out that B-29s weren't doing as well during this was as they had during World War II, MacArthur suggested atomic weapons might make the difference if they were used on cities in Manchuria to disrupt the Chinese supply line.

Truman then wondered if Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union would retaliate against U.S. allies should the U.S. bomb Manchuria. MacArthur dismissed these concerns, arguing that the USSR did not have sufficient atomic weapons to do so. He also argued that U.S. atomic weapons could be used in the case of a Soviet invasion of West Germany. Despite his misgivings, Truman agreed to the use of atomic weapons. Truman admitted that if the three divisions in North Korea has been successfully evacuated from Hungnam, he would not have considered the atomic option.[10]

In January 1951, pits were delivered to Korea and installed in all weapons already present.[11] A few weeks later, Truman transferred the final decision making to MacArthur, authorizing the general to use them if, in MacArthur's view, their use was the only way to improve the situation. The situation had certainly worsened, as the Chinese had relentlessly marched south throughout December and into January, recapturing Seoul, the South Korean capital.[12] In the meantime, U.S. aerial reconnaissance showed that the Soviets were moving fighters and bombers onto airstrips in southeastern Siberia.[13]

The decision finally came a few weeks later. On January 23, 1951, several bombs were dropped on strategic points in Manchuria.[14] Within hours, Truman appeared before the country explaining the action and his reasons for approving it. He also emphasized that Soviet territory had not been attacked.[15] Despite his assurances that the US had no quarrel with the USSR, Joseph Stalin retaliated on behalf of his ally, China, and ordered six atomic attacks against U.S. allies staged from Pechenga[16]: Aberdeen and Norwich in the United Kingdom; Nancy and Rouen in France, and; Augsburg and Bremen in West Germany.[17] The Soviet army headed west as the bombs were landing in Europe, as did the armies of its various satellites.[18]

The attacks on Britain and France effectively triggered the NATO treaty. British Prime MinisterClement Attlee and French President Vincent Auriol immediately demanded the U.S. respond. So did West Germany, but as that country wasn't in NATO, Truman felt comfortable ignoring them.[19] Truman consulted with Secretary of Defense George Marshall. While neither were enthusiastic about attacking the Soviets again, Truman decided that destroying Pechenga was the least terrible option, as it might mollify Britain and France, and was sufficiently isolated from more populous Soviet territory that Stalin might not feel compelled to respond. Ignoring the European attacks might end NATO altogether and send Europe into an alliance with Stalin. At Marshall's suggestion, Truman had the planes fly out of the UK and France. He also ordered Alaska put on alert, as it was similar to Pechenga, and would be a likely target if Stalin did retaliate.[20]

Pechenga was destroyed on February 4, 1951. Despite Truman's order for precautions, Elmendorf Air Force Base was destroyed by the Soviets on February 7.[21]

In response, on February 15, Truman authorized atomic attacks against Russia's satellites, destroying Zywiec in Poland, Szekesfehervar in Hungary, and Ceske Budejovice in Czechoslovakia in an effort to disrupt several transportation hubs.[22] Two days later, the Soviet invasion of West Germany began, and World War III was now past the point of no return.[23]

The Soviets, using their numerical superiority, made substantial gains in West Germany, Austria and northeastern Italy, despite huge casualties inflicted on them by Allied forces.[24] In response, on February 24, U.S. launching bombing raids against various targets within the USSR and its allied countries, including Warsaw and Krakow in Poland, Prague and Bratislava in Czechoslovakia, and Budapest in Hungary, and the Soviet cities of Leningrad and Vladivostok, as well as Minsk in Byelorussian SSR and Rovno in the Ukranian SSR. Allegedly, the Leningrad attack (a night raid) killed several children playing in a park for which Stalin promised retribution.[25]

As February wound down, the U.S. was faced with what he termed as a catastrophe. He realized that the U.S. probably didn't have the manpower to stop the Russians, even with Britain and France contributing. Truman was already regretting the decision to bomb Manchuria, especially as the only solution he and Secretary of Defense Marshall could see to remedy the disparity in manpower was the use of more atom bombs.[26] However, as West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer had wired Truman and begged him not to use atom bombs in West German territory, lest the U.S. lose West Germany as an ally, Truman ruled it out, despite Marshall's misgivings. Instead, Truman decided to use bombs in East Germany and in Russia's satellites with the goal of slowing down the Soviet supply line. He even hoped that the attacks might prompt the governments of the various satellites to reconsider their alliance with Russia, or to prompt the citizens of those states to rebel against their communist governments.[27]
Truman further decided not to attack capital cities, but instead smaller towns that had important rail lines. Marshall prepared a list for Truman's approval.[28]

In response, Truman ordered massive retaliation that destroyed a number of Soviet ports on March 4, including Vladivostok[33] (a successful if costly attack for the U.S.), as well as Kiev,[34]. In the following weeks, the U.S. also dropped atomic bombs on Leningrad[35] and Moscow itself.[36] Stalin survived this attack, and took to the radio to rally the Soviet Union.[37]

In April, Truman finally took a tour of the West Coast. He gave a candid press conference in Los Angeles, where he'd come to see the damage. He allowed his administration had made several mistakes in its handling of the war, but that the country would press on.[38] In the immediate aftermath of the bombings, the National Guard was called out in the impacted states to maintain order,[39] and established refugee camps for the displaced.[40] Over the next couple of months, the National Guard set up border checkpoints in Washington, Oregon, and California.[41]

A few days after the West Coast trip, the Soviet Union attacked several airfields in the U.K. with conventional explosives, including USAF barracks at Sculthorpe. While the attacks killed several and did a fair amount of damage, compared with an atomic bomb, the attacks were more nuisances.[42] However, days later, the Soviets inflicted another atomic attack on the U.S. when it successfully placed an atom bomb in a Greek-listed freighter, and successfully detonated the bomb in the Panama Canal near the Caribbean end; if the canal were repairable at all, it would be years. The Soviets also destroyed the Suez Canal.[43]

In May, the U.S. was able to destroy Khabarovsk and Blagoveshchensk, two key Soviet cities on the Trans-Siberian railroad; the attacks were designed to hamper Soviet aid to its allies in Korea.[44] Nonetheless, Truman was subject to increasingly sharp criticism at home. His loudest critic was Senator Joseph McCarthy, who claimed that Truman and Secretary Marshall were soft on Communism, and alleged the "Reds" uncovered in the State Department during Marshall's tenure there had shared the USA's weaknesses with the Soviets before they were caught.[45]

In June, the Soviets successfully bombed on Paris,[46] effectively wiping out the French government. Several surviving officials established a Committee of National Salvation, and asked Charles de Gaulle to become its head.[47] De Gaulle's first task was to contact Truman for aid, including medical supplies and experts in treating radiation sickness. While de Gaulle and Truman had shared a deep antipathy from the closing days of World War II, Truman realized that de Gaulle could forge a separate peace with the USSR, and so did everything he could to meet de Gaulle's requests.[48]

By July 1951, the situation in Europe was critical: Soviet forces had crossed most of West Germany and were approaching the borders with the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and held the Po Valley in Italy. Truman had little hope they'd keep fighting if the Russians continued their advances.[49] Thus, in order to halt the advance, and keep the Western Allies in the fight, Truman ordered the use of atom bombs on the Soviet forward positions in West Germany.[50]

The attacks destroyed most of the Soviet forward positions, forcing the survivors to retreat back east.[51] Afterward, Truman gave a press conference, and once again offered Joseph Stalin the status quo ante bellum, with all communist forces in Europe and Korea pulling back to their pre-war borders. Stalin refused.[52]

On the home front, things began to stabilize, even in areas that had been attacked. Traces of normality returned in fits and starts to places like Glendale.[53] Places that had not been targeted also carried on as if there wasn't a war on at all.[54] And soon, McCarthy was not the only person seeking the Republican nomination: Senator Robert Taft, California Governor Earl Warren, and General Dwight Eisenhower had thrown their hats in the ring.[55]
While the Allies were advancing for the first time since the beginning of the ground war, Stalin still had a sufficient atomic arsenal to respond. In short order, the Soviets attacked targets in South Korea in August,[56] and then destroyed the U.S. airbase in Sculthorpe, U.K. in September.[57] Worst of all was the attack on Antwerp, Belgium a few weeks later.[58]

Truman was forced to concede to the Prime Ministers of Belgium and the Netherlands the U.S. could not promise to protect them from Soviet attacks.[59] When Truman met with Secretary of Defense Marshall afterward, Marshall acknowledged that Truman had told the premiers the truth. He assured Truman that the Soviets could not reach the U.S. East Coast at this time.[60]

After several more weeks of weighing his chances for re-election, in October 1951, Truman announced that he would not be running again in 1952.[61] Predictably, Soviet propaganda declared Truman a coward.[62] Now the field for the Democratic Party was wide open, and several candidates announced their own bids, including Vice PresidentAlben Barkley, Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, Truman-aid W. Averell Harriman, and Senators Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Estes Kefauver of Tennessee.[63] While each man had his strengths and weaknesses, by spring of 1952, there wasn't a clear Democratic front-runner the way McCarthy had become for the GOP.

In May 1952, even as the NATO drive continued east and the Soviet Union's resources were being drained, the Soviets launched an air raid on the East Coast of the U.S. After months of practice, Soviet Tu-4s were able to cross the Atlantic using mid-air refueling.[64] Washington DC, New York City, and Boston were all destroyed. President Truman was attending a fund-raiser in Buffalo, New York, and thus survived an attack that effectively wiped out the U.S Federal government, his wife and daughter included.[65]

Philadelphia became the acting capital of the U.S.; it had also been targeted, but it was spared when the Tu-4 assigned to attack the city crashed in New Egypt, New Jersey.[66] Truman spoke to Chief Justice Fred Vinson--seven of the nine Supreme Court Justices had been in St. Louis. Vinson concluded that Truman would have broad emergency powers while the U.S. rebuilt its government. Truman also promised final vengeance on Stalin.[67] The immediate U.S. response was to destroy Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Odessa.[68]

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The United States remained neutral during the Second World War, watching as country after country fell in Europe and in Asia. After the war, the United States found itself in a growing cold war with the victorious Axis, particularly the Germany and the Empire of Japan, climaxing with the Third World War in the late 1960s. Germany was the first country to develop nuclear weapons, destroying Washington, DC and Philadelphia during the fighting. While the U.S. was able to counter-attack German soil, it was subdued by its enemies. During the war, America lost a third of its population.

With Washington, DC reduced to a nuclear wasteland, the American capital was moved to Omaha in the Mid West where a pro-Nazi American administration was established. The US paid an annual tribute, which became an important source of income for the Reich's economy. When the United States was either unable to pay this tribute or was late in doing so, the Wehrmacht, which maintained bases in New York, Chicago, St. Louis and Omaha itself, used terror tactics to bring the U.S. in line.

The American economy underwent hyperinflation following the war with the US Dollar fallen from its place as a major world currency.

In 2010, as part of the reforms promised by the fourth FührerHeinz Buckliger, Germany reduced the annual assessment by 13% (allowing the American economy to flow easier) and sent a division of occupation troops in the US back to the Reich (allowing the Americans to do more as they pleased with a lesser chance of being bullied and harassed by the occupation troops). Despite this, some Oberkommando der Wehrmacht officials like Heinrich Gimpel and Willi Dorsch assumed that the Americans would always try to find ways out of paying the annual tribute.

In 2011, the U.S. effectively defaulted. However, the Reich did not respond militarily as it had in the past. Nonetheless, the Wehrmacht was keen to keep the U.S. under heel, knowing full well that the U.S. could make a formidable opponent if it regained its freedom.

The United States had remained neutral during World War II. This allowed the Germans to overrun all of Europe and the Japanese to run wild in Asia. By 1947, the Americans had realized their error of non-interference and were backing the Free French in Africa against the Nazi backed Vichy French. The Germans had also warned the Americans not to interfere with the Japanese empire in the Pacific Ocean.

Everyone believed that one day soon, the United States would be the next target of both the Germans and the Japanese.

While Germany continued to simmer, the war against Japan continued at full boil. Shortly after taking office, Truman was informed of the development of the atomic bomb. Fearing the loss of life that could arise from the invasion of the Japanese home islands, Truman ordered the deployment of a bomb against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively in August, 1945. Japan immediately surrendered.

Witnessing the protest, Truman himself approached McGraw, and argued the threat that both the Nazis and the Soviet Union (America's former ally) posed to the peace. Unfortunately for him, Truman took far too condescending a tone, which helped shore up McGraw's own self-assurance that the lives lost were too a high a price. Nor could he dislodge her belief that the atomic bomb would be easily deployed should either Germany or the USSR become a threat.

Truman continued this line of argument publically throughout 1946. He dismissed the notion that McGraw's view was gaining momentum with the American people, and waived off the possibility that the Republicans would ride the issue to Congressional victory in the fall. He also asserted that foreign policy was set by the executive, and so scoffed angrily at the idea that Republican Congress could (much less would) order the troops home.

In 1946, American troops very nearly had their hands on Heydrich after the guerrilla leader personally oversaw the kidnapping of a group of German physicists from British custody. Tom Schmidt, now working for the Chicago Tribune, grew ever more critical of the Administration, dispensing with much civility.

With the actual war over, American policy now grew frosty to its allies, especially the Soviet Union, although this applied to France as well. Despite warnings from CIC officer Lou Weissberg, French authorities did not heed warnings that the German town of Hechingen would be a GFF target. The GFF was able to collected a quantity of radium that had been abandoned by the German scientists, and detonated it as part of a bomb in the American compound in Frankfurt. This attack came just as the Allies were making their second attempt to try German war criminals.

With these events as a spring-board, the Republicans were able to take back the House and the Senate in November 1946. In the meantime, America's allies Britain and France were subjected to attacks by the GFF on their home soil. While Truman issued statements of solidarity, it did nothing to change the American voters' minds. The ascension of the Republicans emboldened American troops abroad. By January 1947, draftees were actively protesting in the streets of occupied Germany, demanding to go home.

By February 1947, Truman and Congress had already butted heads. Truman vetoed a budget that cut off funding for the occupation by the end of the year. While Congress did not have the votes to override the veto, this was at best a small victory for Truman, as Congress simply provided no funding to the occupation. Soon, the military began withdrawing troops for lack of funds. On July 4, 1947, Indianapolis City Councilman Gus van Slyke was assassinated at an anti-occupation rally. Within hours, Republican Congressman Everett Dirksen had whipped a protest rally in Washington, DC into a frenzy with the news. The crowd did not commit any acts of violence, although Tom Schmidt, who was covering the crowd, feared that it might storm the White House.

The U.S. suffered another set back days later when the GFF once again prevented the trials of several prominent Nazi leaders. This time, the trials were to be held in Berlin, and managed by the Soviet Union. However, a GFF Werewolf seized an American C-47 and crashed it into the courthouse. However, this event gave the USSR a black-eye, and inspired a new sense of cooperation. The NKVD turned over a DP named Shmuel Birnbaum, who'd been one of the slave-laborers who built Heydrich's hideout, to U.S. Army Howard Frank and Lou Weissberg. Reinhard Heydrich was finally located and killed, although the Administration's critics saw this as even greater reason to pull out troops, while Truman worried that killing Heydrich wasn't really the death of the GFF. This fear proved correct as Joachim Peiper soon picked up where Heydrich left off, launching a series of commercial airline hijackings.

In 1948, most of the United States troops in Germany had returned home, and the country hoped against hope that democracy and the atomic bomb would be enough to keep Germany in line.

The United States suffered a major disaster from which it had not recovered by the end of the 22nd century. This had left the country poor and its cities in ruins. A major export was Coca-Cola after the original formula was rediscovered in the ruins of Atlanta.

The US managed to be able to afford to send a team of one man and one woman to Mimas, a moon of Saturn, for the Sixty-sixth Winter Games for the first time in four Olympiads. Private contributions raised the funds for two berths on the Arab World space ship Nasser. Given the team's lack of opportunity for low-g training, they were not expected to contend for any medals but the rest of the world was pleased to see them participating once more.

The United States survived the Great Rebellion of 1861-1865, and the Southern (formerly Confederate) states were kept in the Union. However, the United States government imposed a harsh and repressive peace upon the rebellious states. In 1942, the federal government stopped a Nazi-backed uprising. Many of the freedoms the Loyal States took for granted were denied the Southern states by the 16th Amendment.

The United States was sharply divided after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Almost immediately, the American press unleashed a continual stream of criticism of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt's handling of World War II, often releasing strategic secrets in their efforts to demonstrate the president's incompetence. As his poll numbers fell, Roosevelt's position grew more vulnerable, and his honesty was called into question. By June 1942, Roosevelt was on the verge becoming the second president ever to be impeached.

The United States lost the European Theater of World War II, after the German-Soviet armistice of 1943 freed up German troops to secure Europe from invasion. The USA and the USSR then invaded and jointly occupied Japan. A Soviet sneak attack on Tokyo with a sunbomb was met by American retaliation in Vladivostok, however the death of Stalin and German mediation prevented the conflict from turning into WWIII. By 1979, the US and its British allies, the Germans, and the Soviets, existed in an uneasy three-way cold war as all did what they could to prevent a third use of sunbombs in war.

In 1919, the United States admitted Jefferson as the 49th state. Located in the Pacific Northwest, Jefferson was created when several counties in northern California and southern Oregon seceded from their respective states after the notion of self-determination that was sweeping Europe had made its way west. The governments of California and Oregon were perfectly happy to let the counties go.[69]

Most of the country's sasquatch population were concentrated in the new state, and benefited from Jefferson's cultural openness and libertarian worldview, and did its best to maintain that culture throughout the 20th century, even as it and the rest of the country went through its ups and downs.[70]

Under the rule of the Terrific Leader, the United States became an authoritarian regime. The Terrific Leader maintained a cult of personality to cement his rule, insuring his rule for years.[71] The Terrific Leader established a policy of "America First" that rested on double-think. His slogan after several years of rule was "America is Great Again!" However, the Terrific Leader also publicly despaired of the ongoing crime and violence, routinely promising that they would end. He ordered a wall built on the country's southern border, which he later claimed prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country, slowed down gangs and drugs, and other "terrific" stuff. He also assured the American people that he respected the dignity of work and of working people, which trumped everything else.[72]

The Terrific Leader's cult of personality was buttressed by tight control on the media and communications. Radios had to be authorized by the state, and televisors were issued to communities as a whole, not to individuals, to insure the American people were not exposed to wicked lies. The state spied on citizens in their homes.[73] Even though villages found themselves in dire straits, facing freezing conditions in blizzards without sufficient food or power while villagers foraged for whatever they could get,[74] the American people believed whole-heartedly in the Terrific Leader's personal strength, foresight, and beneficence. In other words, they loved him.[75]

The Terrific Leader had initiated a dynastic movement. It was understood that either one of his sons or perhaps his son-in-law would succeed him.[76]

Generations later, during the presidency of Harris Moffatt III, the Krolp discovered vast amounts of silver and a small amount of gold deposited in northeastern Utah, in U.S. territory. Knowing that Krolp mining technology would leave even the rump U.S. uninhabitable, Moffatt decided to fight rather than allow the Krolp access. War did not begin immediately, however. Moffatt had plenty of opportunity to flee to Craig, Colorado, and initiate Plan Seventeen. While monitoring Krolp channels, Moffatt and his Defense Department learned that the Krolp Subgovernor of the South Central Region was taken to the hospital with an unknown illness (implicitly poisoned by one of the sympathetic humans in his staff). This soon spread to other Krolp officials and loyal humans, sometimes with fatal results. A Krolpish flyer went down, with more Krolp dead and injured. Bridges and overpasses also collapsed within Krolp territory.

In response, the Krolp began marching on the mountains. Most of the USA's military power was centered around northeastern Utah, as a further deterent. After two days, the Krolp began to respond in earnest, after Govenror Vrank survived an assassination attempt. Grand Junction was destroyed. Almost immediately, Moffatt and his advisors moved further north, anticipating Craig would follow Grand Junction. By the third day, it was over; Krolpish forces drove into Utah and routed all opposition, as U.S. forces were overwhelmed and began surrendering in mass. Moffat was captured and forced into exile in the Krolp's North American capital of St. Louis, Missouri, the U.S. was defeated and ceased to exist, and the Krolp got their silver and gold.

The United States did take steps to protect its interests in China during the Japaneseinvasion and occupation that began in 1937. However, as long as the Japanese directed their aggression at the Chinese, the US continued to supply Japan with oil and scrap metal, in effect tacitly supporting the Japanese war effort. Americans on the ground in China were not universally happy with this policy. After the sinking of the USS Panay in 1937, tensions between the countries were higher than normal. However, the Japanese confounded U.S. expectations by launching a war against the Soviet Union and an invasion of Siberia on April 1, 1938.

Earlier in 1939, the GermansubmarineU-30 accidentally sank the American ship SS Athenia. The German government denied responsibility, and shifted the blame to Britain. The U.S. government did not at that point see the sinking of the Athenia as a grounds for declaring war (unlike its reaction to the sinking of the Lusitania in the First World War).

The U.S. maintained its neutrality throughout the remainder of 1939, although it did begin rearming that year in earnest.[77] It also began supporting the war efforts of Britain and France.[78]In the closing months of 1939, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt proposed to broker an end to the fighting by returning the borders of Europe to the status quo ante bellum. His offer was rebuffed by Adolf Hitler.[79]

Throughout 1940, the USA remained neutral. For the first half of the year, the U.S. continued its policy of aiding the Western Allies. However, in mid-1940, Britain and France made peace with Germany and joined Germany its war against the Soviet Union.[80] Public opinion was somewhat divided by the so-called "big switch". While some saw Germany as the greater threat, others applauded the switch as they saw the USSR as the greater threat their values. A thread of anti-Semitism ran through the pro-switch opinion.

Roosevelt, who was running for an unprecedented third term, fell into the former camp. At a speech in October 1940, Roosevelt announced that the U.S. would no longer ship arms to Britain and France, and would additionally stop shipping scrap metal and oil to Japan until Japan left China.[81] Roosevelt won re-election weeks later.[82]

While it appeared the United States had a reprieve from the war, on January 12, 1941, Japanese forces attacked United States possessions, including the Philippines and Hawaii.[83] The next day, Roosevelt asked for, and received, a declaration of war on Japan.[84] Eight days later, Roosevelt was sworn in for a third time.[85]

As Germany did not declare war on the U.S., the American military concentrated its efforts exclusively on the Pacific, where it worked in conjunction with Britain, France, and the Dutch forces located in the East Indies.[86] However, as the war in Europe continued to tie up its allies resources, the U.S. carried most of the military burden.

Japan made the most its surprise attack. The Philippines finally fell,[87] not long General Douglas MacArthur was killed during a Japanese bombing raid.[88] Other territories, most notably Wake Island and Guam also fell.[89] The Pacific fleet, under the command of Admiral Husband Kimmel, immediately moved to retake it. While Marines were successfully landed on Wake, the American Navy, expecting conventional ship-to-ship fighting seen at the Battle of Jutland,[90]were beaten back by the Japanese fleet's superior air-power. Kimmel went down with his flag ship, the USS Arizona.[91] The landed Marines were largely left behind as the Pacific fleet returned to Hawaii.

The American military and political establishment once again turned back to Europe after the 1941 British Military Coup overthrew the pro-German government of Prime MinisterSir Horace Wilson.[92] The new government ended its war with the USSR and restarted its war against Germany. Roosevelt ordered the resumption of arms to Britain as a result. Germany responded by resuming unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic.[93]

On the homefront, public opinion tottered for and against Roosevelt's prosecution of the war, with more than a few voices blaming Roosevelt for allowing the war to happen in the first place.[94] There were those, however, who not only wanted the war against Japan fought until victory, but who still feared the threat that Germany posed.[95] As a consequence of the war against Japan, Roosevelt ordered the internment of Japanese residents on the U.S. mainland.[96] In the meantime, the European situation grew murkier when France also pulled out of the war with the USSR.[97]

Throughout the remainder of the year, the American navy regrouped and resupplied at Hawaii, with a special emphasis on building a fleet of fighter planes and aircraft carriers.[98] As Winter 1941 approached, a fleet including the USS Ranger (a carrier), the USS Boise, three destroyers and a heavy cruiser steamed out of Hawaii to once again meet the Japanese. However, the subsequent Battle of the Java Sea was a terrific defeat for the over-confident and badly coordinated allies. Japan was able to consolidate its hold in Southeast Asia, and began to redouble it attacks on Hawaii.

Determined to regain momentum, the U.S. launched the largest task force the world had ever seen against in an attempt to retake Wake Island. That subsequent battle proved an even greater disaster for the U.S. than Java Sea, with the US losing all of its aircraft carriers. Midway fell shortly after, leaving Hawaii as the USA's most forward defense post.

Despite this series of set backs, the Democrats were able to hold a majority with some losses in the 1942 Congressional election.[99] In the top secret realm of military affairs, President Roosevelt met another setback when a project for a new and powerful bomb was declared a boondoggle and cancelled. As this remained a secret, Roosevelt avoided criticism from opponents and the public remained unaware.[100]

1944 proved to be the turning point in the Pacific. While Japan began the year with free reign to bomb Hawaii with relative impunity throughout 1942 and into 1943,[101], even using biological weapons,[102] by early 1944, a dramatic raid on Midway succeeded in driving the Japanese out.[103]

That same year, after months of tension, Adolf Hitler decided to initiate war with the United States when German U-boats attacked several American merchant ships in March.[104] However, the two countries never engaged in direct conflict. Well before U.S. troops could make their way to Europe, several German military and political leaders form the Committee for the Salvation of the German Nation, with General Heinz Guderian as their leader. The Committee assassinated Hitler in April 1944.[105] Guderian and the Committee triumphed in the brief civil war that followed, and fighting ceased on all fronts in Europe.[106]

As the war in Europe ended before the U.S. could fully involve itself, the United States remained an observer of the European peace process and the various shifts in territory that resulted.[107] As Roosevelt wanted an alliance with the Soviet Union to facilitate a quick end to the war with Japan, the U.S. opted not to objec to the Soviet annexation of Lithuania, Lativa and Estonia . For his part, Joseph Stalin was eager to get American help in regaining Vladivostok and eastern Siberia, and possibly moving further into Japanese territory.[108] Concurrently, Albert Einstein, an early advocate for the Tennessee bomb-project shelved the year before, began to make efforts to restart the project.[109]

The United States was one of two Earth countries to send a manned ship to the planet Minerva in the 1980s. The other was its rival, the Soviet Union. Following the death of Frank Marquard, the US reluctantly supported the Omalo in the Skarmer-Omalo War. The Omalo emerged victorious, and the US developed very warm relations with Reatur, who suddenly found himself an extremely powerful domain-master.